The Clutter Around and Within

MY HOUSE IS A MESS.

Yes, I’m stating that in front of the entire cyber world!There are piles all over the place that need to be sorted into ‘keep’, ‘trash’, ‘give away’, and (the worst!) ‘try to sell’.There is so much stuff on the floors that I cannot vacuum them.This is not a good thing when one has three shedding cats!In my studio, the available workspace is an area approximately 18”x 24” in the middle of my desk/work table.The rest is all devoted to ‘storing the stuff’, or more accurately, ‘stuffing the stuff’.Anyone who works in more than one media or in mixed media knows there is no limit to those things you gotta have, especially those intriguing found objects and items bought on Clearance.Of course, if one sells on the Internet, photography equipment is another necessity.The overflow from my studio has spread like a cancer to other parts of the house, especially my dining room.It just goes on and on and on…. But don’t take my word for it, look at these photos

Studio, view 1

Studio, view 2

MY MIND IS A MESS.Sorry, but I don’t have any photos to show here.The best I can do is to describe it as a ‘Ball of Confusion’, to borrow the title of a Temptations song.The ‘important’ and ‘trivial’ are so hopelessly entangled they are almost indistinguishable from one another.Since my retirement over two years ago, I’ve been agonizing over the array of ‘options’ available to me.I’ve done a little of this, a little of that, and a lot of not-very-much.The one thing that has remained constant is my desire to create art for a living.I don’t mean ‘for a living’ in the narrow sense of making money, although that is certainly part of it.I mean that I want to spend as much time as possible in a ‘state of creation’, where the mind is still, and there is no past or future, just the clay (or canvas or beads or wire, etc.) and the joy of transforming them into eye candy!Not that other things wouldn’t require my attention-bills need to be paid, cats need to be fed, the gym needs to be visited, the garden needs weeding, my blog needs updating, etc, etc.But I would like to keep these tasks from overwhelming me and leaving me discouraged and depleted.

I suspect this issue will resurface as a subject of future blogs, so stay tuned !

Rate this:

Like this:

Related

Responses

Hello Dora,

Yes, I have the whole dining room as my workroom, and always end up with about 18″ x 24″ of space on the table left to work on.

I can totally relate. I have recently started a blog. If I am busy with activities to write about, there does not seem to be time to write about them. If I have time to write it is because not much going on to tell.

Yes, I do have a labeler, Susan….2, actually, LOL!!
I like using it, too, it makes me feel so organized and ‘in control’…
But the stuff on my table and on the floor isn’t labeled, and that’s where most of the stuff I need is hiding !

Hi Dora,
I so agree with you that your internal state can be so affected by your external state/environment. It’s a very hard thing to do but I highly recommend the “Big Purge”. When I moved, I threw away/donated so many things that I thought that I couldn’t let go of and I don’t even miss those things now. Well, they do say that the first step towards change is admitting that something does need to change so perhaps now that you’ve expressed this energy to your blog readers and the universe, it will initiate a forward momentum in that area. Good luck with that!